Older protagonists, the female PC's design, the first female professor, triple battles, two rivals (three if you count N), idle animations, online random matches, portrait cutscenes with moving lips, no more NPC Roadblock, and specifying the weather on the bottom screen instead of pausing every turn to remind you.

In the old days, TMs broke after one use. Not anymore! This allows the creators to introduce (in some cases, such as Rock Smash, re-introduce) the more "useless" HMs as TMs, which means that Pokémon can finally just forget them if necessary without the player having to look for someone to make them forget the attack. On the other hand, TMs were made more expensive in order to counterbalance this.

Although Woobat takes Zubat's place, it's much less of a Goddamned Bat than the above four were. Woobat tend to buff themselves or confuse the player's Pokémon, which means no harm, no foul if you simply run.

There are 156 new Pokémon. That's more than have EVER been introduced at once in a generation.

Tornadus of the Kami Trio is the very first pure Flying-Type.

And there is now a fully-evolved pure Dragon, Haxorus (all previous fully-evolved and Legendary Dragons have been dual-types).

And a non-evolving pure Dragon-type with Druddigon.

As well as the first three-stage pure Ice-type line (Vanillite, Vannillish, Vanilluxe) and the first pure Steel-type evolutionary line (Klink, Klang, Klinklang).

Only six HMs are in the game, including Dive for the first time since Hoenn.

As a bonus, aside from an early instance of Cut, (which one could teach to a Patrat or Purrloin, or the elemental monkey if you didn't intend to keep it beyond the first gym) none of them are needed to finish the main storyline. Meaning the only move slot you'll "need" to waste is that of a flying type for the Fly HM for convenience's sake.

Vanillite, Vanillish, and Vanilluxe, the ice cream Pokémon, was enough to convince many on the fence to fall in love with this generation.

There was even more rejoicing when a remix of Blue Oak's theme from the original game was revealed.

In the Pokémon League, when you fight the Elite Four. Not only do you fight them, you also fight the Version Exclusive Legendary, Zekrom/Reshiram, the leader of Team Plasma, N and then his father, Ghetsis. You fight the champion after getting the National Dex.

Mewtwo finally gets its very own signature move, Psystrike.

Stealth Rock, the move that had reshaped the metagame in Gen IV, is no longer a TM.

Most routes now have a NPC that will heal your Pokémon on the spot, negating the need to head all the way back to a Pokémon Center for healing. Previous generations only had occasional healing locations on longer routes.

There are a lot of trainers who can be fought daily for experience besides the Elite Four. This makes it a lot easier to both train Pokémon and get money.

The Gym Leaders actually DO SOMETHING about the evil syndicate instead of letting the hero do all the work, including arresting Team Plasma Members and assisting you in beating them. Then in the endgame, they pull a Big Damn Heroes moment and perform a You Shall Not Pass on the Seven Sages to let you go on ahead.

Generation V (Black/White and Black 2/White 2 alike) also feature a welcome addition: box-to-box Pokémon trading in Local Wi-Fi play. That's right, nobody'll ever need to get out of the Wi-Fi Room and swap the Pogeys in his party with those in the PC anymore.

This is the first main-game sequel since Pokémon Gold and Silver, and it'll probably be more of a sequel than that game. Also, the thought of the beloved Pokémon Black and White continuing - and threads being tied - made the fandom really rejoice.

This is the second pair of main series gamesnote after FireRed and LeafGreen to be localized the same year as its original counterpart. Dated summer for Japan and (northern hemisphere) fall for the United States and other countries.

The confirmation that these games are indeed outright sequels, featuring an expanded Unova.

New Pokémon joining in the Unova regional Pokédex, some including the Eeveelutions, Riolu/Lucario, Psyduck/Golduck and... Tyranitar and Metagross!

Specifically, 301 Pokémonnote counting Victini, Keldeo, Meloetta, and Genesect are in the regional Pokédex. You will not be at a loss for team options in this one.

Not only that, but Riolu is an early-game Mon for the first time ever - Lucario is one of the most common Pokémon to see on in-game teams.

Not only that, there is a whole lot of extra Pokémon in post-game. Some were available in Black and White only via DW (or in White Forest), some had to be migrated from previous Generation. There is 187 of these. Yeah, not all are available directly (you need to breed or evolve the Pokémon in its evolutionary stage, sometimes breed and evolve), some are harder to get (swarms, Hidden Grotto) and few are also version-exclusives, but you have to admit that's a lot for a pair of games. Aside from events, the New Unova has 297 Pokémon in Dex, though Kami trio is uncatchable, lowering the number to 294. Add the extra mons (without the Unova events) and you get 481 Pokémon, just 14 short of first four Generations together.

To be precise, you can catch 94 (38 in regional) Kanto Pokémon, 69 (32 in regional) Johto Pokémon, 99 Hoenn (43 in regional) Pokémon, 70 (32 in regional) Sinnoh Pokémon and 149 Unova Pokémon (with four event it gives 153 for Unova). Not with one game, though. This takes at least three gamesnote or two games if you get the third starter line through the GTS.

The new Habitat feature, a checklist showing which Pokémon reside in which area, is like a godsend for players who focus more on collecting them.

The addition of a Poison-type specialist may seem minor, but there hadn't been one since Generation II.

Nor outside of Kanto, for that matter.

The female protagonist design has once again become popular within the franchise.

Regular Trainers now have animated sprites. Not only that, but from what few animations we've seen, they're much more animated than the three frames that previous generations had and now have as many frames as animated Pokémon sprites do (not minding the fact that the Trainer sprites stop, of course).

The new First Town, Aspertia City is the first hometown in the main series to be a city, to be much larger than other hometowns, to contain a Pokémon Center, to have a Trainer's School, to feature a concreted path, and last but not least, to contain a gym.note Though you can't challenge the gym before actually leaving the first town. You have to go to Floccesy first.

New formes for the Kami trio, Kyurem, and Keldeo!note Although in Keldeo's case, it is purely aesthetic.

Black and White Kyurem's base stat total is 700, second only to Arceus! The ice dragon has finally gotten the boost it needed!

Cheren and Bianca are both confirmed to be back; Cheren is a Normal-type Gym Leader while Bianca will give you your starter Pokémon. They both play major roles in the plot as well.

N is also confirmed to be appearing in the game with the same scan that shows Cheren, Bianca, and Alder.

Ghetsis seems to be back as the Big Bad - being such a Love to Hate villain, fans are ecstatic!

Early May 15, some pics from a yet-to-be-released video popped up, showing an animated trailer for the games. Some hours later, it finally showed up on Youtube. Saying the fandom rejoiced might as well be an understatement.

Move tutors are now confirmed. They now teach moves with shards like in Platinum and teach some fan favorite moves that got lost in the generation transition like the elemental punches, Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse, Roost, Giga Drain, Drain Punch and many more.

4 different cities teach a total of 60 moves. Some of these are old moves who never were learnable outside of breeding and level-up, such as Bind or Hyper Voice.

Evolutionary stones are now buyable at the Battle Subway with the cost of 3 points each, far better than trying to find the right person for Black City/White Forest and looking for them in dust clouds.

By the way of Battle Subway, many items are now much cheaper. The most expensive items are now just 24BP, compared to the original games where prices reached even twice as much.

Zorua and Zoroark are no longer event-exclusive, as the former is given away for free. And it used to belong to N too.

Neither is the Snarl TM. Time Capsule is now useless (as it was supposed to be transfered from Generation IV to fifth via Relocator and then brought to a place, to open it and receive the then-event exclusive TM.

You fight Ghetsis again, as well as the ShadowTriad - previously The Unfought! On top of that, Colress also looks to be a battler, with Zinzolin of the Seven Sages serving as a top enforcer - in other words, this time we have a properFive-Bad Band, and all are fightable. Hallelujah!

While not much as joyful, Rood of the Seven Sages is also battled, though as you have only 4 badges (unless you can battle Clay without going there, as you battle him in Driftveil City) by that time (the first time you meet Zinzolin, you already have 6 badges), he is much weaker.

The World Tournament Mode, where you fight the Gym Leaders and Champions from the previous generations, as a massive Continuity Cavalcade. And yes, Red counts as a champion. Our bodies weren't ready.

There's an item that increases the chances of getting shiny Pokemon! Which you get by completing the Pokedex. Finally, something actually USEFUL after all these years instead of a damn certificate!

Also there are some Pokemon that are guaranteed shiny! The last time this happened was way back in Gold/Silver, and that was only one Pokemon (Gyarados) and only because the story of the game made it that way!

Music wise, every gym in this game now has its own remix of the gym theme instead of sharing a single theme.

Not just that, but the Gym Leader and Champion themes from the previous games return, to go along with the Gym Leaders and Champions from previous games returning in the World Tournament.

Every non-mascot, non-event legendary from Gens III and IV being catchable in the postgame (though Lati@s are version-exclusive, all other legend aren'tnote Regice and Registeel are not, though they DO look like version-exclusives). Regigigas even finally gets the Regi trio's battle theme!

Located in out of the way places are Hidden Grottoes which may hold a special Pokémon with a hidden ability. One of the available Pokémon is Ditto. Which have Imposter as its hidden ability! note A Pokémon with Imposter will automatically transform into its opponent when it enters the battle, giving Ditto several levels in badass.

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